Facebook has undoubtedly changed the way we interact with one another. It brought a multitude of people into the social media stratosphere. Do we have stop to fully take that in? Recently it was Mother's Day, scrolling down my news feed I couldn't miss it. The multitudes of Facebook users took to their profiles to wish their mothers a happy day. Some threw in pictures, both recent and old, others went for the note of appreciation. Some of these posts received over a hundred likes, others received in the single digits. It shouldn't be a big deal......but is it?
The Effect on our Self-Esteem
A study done by the New York Times claims that people who feel ignored on social media suffer from lower self-esteem. This is so sad because it is an outlet for us to feel connected. Unfortunately it is very much a mirror of society. People often have these left out feelings in RL social interactions, and many find similar situations online. The study that was conducted in this article claims that those who posted and received little or no feed back felt "invisible" and as a result had lower self-esteem. This is the hard aspect of online interactions, these feelings are common.
Reality Check
I often wonder why some statuses get more likes than others even when the level of importance appears to be the same. In my own experiences I have found that it is related to how often people post, this creates more of a steady following base of people that will be more inclined to like or comment on posts. Also, as the TED talk we listened to in class explained our news feeds are filtered so it may be that some posts have been filtered more than others. I think that people shouldn't use social media as a means to gain self-esteem. Social media should be for personal enjoyment and not for the "likes". Focus more on having a few close people who truly care about you rather than 100 people who just like to "creep" :)
It's funny because, for me, social media has made much of social interaction invisible. (if you remember, I have no social media presence)
ReplyDeleteI know that my friends talk to each other all the time online. It has either replaced RL meetings or facilitated them. Where does that leave me?
One day I'll be able to chalk up this experience as a great experiment and probably the fodder for some book.
I'll call it: "My Adventures in Non-existence" or "Digital Death" (too morbid?)
I'll work on it.
I think that as we continue down this social media path it does effect social interactions with people in RL. For example people don't always think to call a person to see how a recent trip went, just check Facebook for pictures. I think that the fact that you have continued to stay off of social media demonstrates that you have enough self-confidence to not look to others to validate your self esteem. I think a book on the topic may prove to be interesting, probably would go with the first title, haha.
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